Welcome!

Welcome to the Deliberate Birder.  My goal is to encourage birders to consider the impacts of their choices on birds and their essential habitats.  The title was inspired by Walden where Thoreau said he went to the woods because he “wished to live deliberately.”  Only by making deliberate choices can we expect to reach our goals.  As birders, preservation of native ecosystems needs to be a goal.  Without healthy ecosystems we can’t maintain healthy populations of birds.

I’m a nearly life-long birder; I started when I was ten (although in the interest of full disclosure I should admit that snakes were my first love).  I‘m fortunate to have had parents who encouraged my interest in birds.  When I was 11 or 12, my father took me to visit Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge.  I remember marveling at the seemingly continuous incoming flocks of Canada geese. 

I now make my living as a biologist in the public sector.  My current position is in fire management in southern Wisconsin where our focus is on grasslands, both wetland and upland.  I’ve also worked in the grasslands of Minnesota, Iowa, and Texas.  Unfortunately, the grasslands in all of those areas are fragmented and degraded.  We have amazingly dedicated people throughout the Midwest making nearly heroic efforts to protect and restore prairies and their accomplishments are significant, but the needs are even greater, so the challenge will continue to be a long uphill climb.

I consider myself to be an activist – that’s why I’m here.  I hope to increase awareness and challenge birders to continue to go further.  Birds need us all to be activists.  If we want to continue to enjoy birds we have to act.  If we want to see birds, how can we not assume responsibility to preserve what we want love?  Who else is going to?  I’m a member of my local Audubon Society chapter and a member of the American Birding Association.  The Audubon Society has a history of activism; the ABA lists conservation as part of their mission, but I think we can make conservation an even larger part of our mission.  I think we need to.  I hope to be the prod that instigates change.

I want to challenge birders to make the full range of their decisions based on what supports birds.  And not just for birds’ sake, but for the need for preservation of the biodiversity.  Our focus may be birds, but the ultimate goal is the conservation of native ecosystems and all the components there of.  We can’t preserve birds without preserving their habitats.  Birds may be the best focal point for environmental awareness as they are almost universally appreciated and celebrated.  They’re visible and appreciated.  We need to utilize (exploit?) those characteristics to increase awareness of the threats to the health of the land.  What happens to birds and other animals will in turn happen to us.  We need to be deliberate in our actions.  We need to consider our choices. 

My areas of interest include grasslands and grassland birds, shade coffee, energy, and ecotourism.